National Geographic

World Net Daily is upping the birther ante, now claiming that presidential candidates must have been born to U.S. citizens in order to be eligible. And that lets out two major GOP figures.

Are U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal natural-born citizens of the United States, and thus eligible for the presidency? It's a simple question, but the answer may not be so easy. While the Constitution does not define "natural-born citizen," there is strong evidence that the Founding Fathers understood it to mean someone born of two American citizens. The next national election is less than 18 months away, and both rising Republican stars have been touted as potential contenders for either the No. 1 or No. 2 spot on a presidential ticket. But their eligibility is in doubt since both men's parents were not U.S. citizens at the time their future political children were born, WND can reveal. That factor is important because the Constitution mandates a presidential candidate to be a "natural-born citizen," a requirement that has dogged President Barack Obama since the 2008 campaign.

And what do Jindal and Rubio and Obama all have in common? Bingo.

World Net Daily founder Joseph Farah says that he will be suing Esquire Magazine for posting a satirical claim that he had decided to pull the publication of Jerome Corsi's birther book, Where's The Birth Certificate?

On Wednesday, Esquire wrote:

In an exclusive interview, a reflective Farah, who wrote the book's foreword and also published Corsi's earlier best-selling work, Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak out Against John Kerry and Capricorn One: NASA, JFK, and the Great "Moon Landing" Cover-Up, said that after much serious reflection, he could not go forward with the project. "I believe with all my heart that Barack Obama is destroying this country, and I will continue to stand against his administration at every turn, but in light of recent events, this book has become problematic, and contains what I now believe to be factual inaccuracies," he said this morning. "I cannot in good conscience publish it and expect anyone to believe it."

The Esquire piece, which was not marked as satire until an update was posted several hours later, was picked up by numerous blogs. Farah rails: "I have concluded with attorneys who say we have an excellent chance of winning a lawsuit or lawsuits for the reckless disregard for the truth demonstrated by Mark Warren, Esquire and the Hearst Corporation in this matter. Personally, I think we should set our sights on taking ownership of Esquire. I think that would be a fair settlement. Obviously the magazine is in dire need of professional management."

NOTE: I came very close to posting about the Esquire piece, but luckily decided to check WND to see if they still had dozens of birther stories on the front page.

Even after the release of his long-form birth certificate, 30% of polled Republicans say they don't believe the president is a U.S. citizen.

Sixteen percent of all voters and 30% of Republicans do not believe President Barack Obama has proven he was born in the U.S., even after release of his long-form birth certificate, a new IBOPE Zogby interactive survey finds. These results are from an IBOPE Zogby interactive poll conducted April 29-May 2, which was after Obama released the birth certificate and addressed the news media on the topic. Demographic groups besides Republicans expressing the highest levels of doubt about Obama's birth in the U.S. are conservatives (34%), and those without a college degree (21%) vs. those with a degree (11%).

Trump attended as the guest of the Washington Post.

Onion staffer Baratunde Thurston's evisceration of Donald Trump has gone viral in the last couple of days. Watch the clip, then click over to the Village Voice for Stephen Thrasher's interview with Thurston.

The top two dozen stories on World Net Daily today are all new or revived birth certificate conspiracies.

Trump continues to insist that a CNN poll shows him even with the president. King points out that CNN has never issued such a poll, much to Trump's anger and denial.

But Buzzfeed has some fun with it.

For weeks World Net Daily has been flogging nutjob Jerome Corsi's coming birther book, encouraging readers to pre-order it on Amazon so that it debuts at the top of bestsellers lists. Even though it doesn't come out for weeks, today Corsi's now-doomed title ranks at #29 on the overall chart and is #1 on several of Amazon's niche categories.

"Today I'm very proud of myself, because I've accomplished something that no one else has been able to accomplish. I want to look at it, but I hope it's true. But he should have done it a long time ago." - Donald Trump, who went on to demand the president's college transcripts. Trump also claimed that a CNN poll shows he running neck-and-neck with the president. CNN immediately denied that any such poll exists.

Talking Points Memo:

It's surreal and weird and faintly ridiculous that it's come to this. But this morning the White House caught the press corps seriously off guard by handing out copies of the anti-Holy Grail of birtherism, the fabled 'long form' birth certificate.

The president will speak to this issue in a press conference this morning. So far there hasn't been a peep from Donald Trump or the idiots at World Net Daily. Heh.

UPDATE: World Net Daily reacts predictably:

If the document proves valid, it could answer the questions raised by those who have alleged he was not actually born in Hawaii. But it also could prove his ineligibility because of its references to his father. Some of the cases challenging Obama have explained that he was a dual citizen through his father at his birth, and they contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born citizens.

Today Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer drew the ire of fellow teabaggers when she vetoed a bill requiring presidential candidates to submit a birth certificate in order to be placed on the state ballot.

Brewer said in her veto letter that she was troubled that the bill empowered Arizona's secretary of state to judge the qualifications of all candidates when they file to run for office. "I do not support designating one person as the gatekeeper to the ballot for a candidate, which could lead to arbitrary or politically motivated decisions," said Brewer, who was secretary of state until she became governor in 2009. "In addition, I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for president of the greatest and most powerful nation on Earth to submit their 'early baptismal circumcision certificates' among other records to the Arizona secretary of state," she said. "This is a bridge too far."

Also today Brewer approved a bill requiring that married opposite-sex couples be given first preference in all adoption decisions. According to the bill's opponents, this may effectively mean the end of gay adoption in Arizona.

Senate Bill 1188, which was sponsored by Sen. Linda Gray, R-Glendale, would require an adoption agency to "give primary consideration to adoptive placement with a married man and woman." It permits the agency to consider a single person if, among other things, the child's best interests require the adoption by a single person or if a married couple is not available and the alternative is extended foster care. The bill applies to both state and private adoption agencies. Previously, only Utah has a law requiring priority for married couples, though several other states have bans on adoptions by same-sex couples or by unmarried couples.

Trump told the audience that Obama couldn't have written both of his books because they were so different. "The difference was like chicken salad and chicken shit."

"Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people–mostly people I didn’t think would be upset by it. You're not going to make a big deal about this are you? It's just an Internet joke." - Marilyn Davenport, Tea Party activist and Orange County GOP committee member, after being busted for having emailed the above image with the caption: "Now you know why there's no birth certificate."

Arizona's GOP-dominated legislature has passed its bill requiring all presidential candidates to provide proof of being born in the United States in order to have their names placed on the ballot.

Lawmakers in 10 states introduced birther bills in their state legislatures at the beginning of this year's sessions, but the Arizona bill is so far the only one to make it to a governor's desk. The measure had failed twice in the last two years to make its way through the legislature, but this time was shepherded by a compliant Republican leadership that had not been eager to advance the issue before. The Republican speaker of the state House supported the bill this time, he told The Arizona Republic, because he believes it does not "add to or detract from the qualifications for president as stated in the United States Constitution." Brewer has not yet indicated where she stands on the bill, but has five days to choose whether to sign or veto it. If Brewer decides to not take a position and let the five-day period lapse, the bill will become law.

As you might expect, World Net Daily is doing ecstatic backflips and is directing readers to a website calling on Brewer to sign the bill.